Out of the Black: The Declassification of the NRO
As the documents illustrate, the issue of NRO declassification was considered as early as 1973. The documents further show that DCI Stansfield Turner (1977-1981) concluded that the fact of NRO and NRP existence did not meet the test of classification. As a result, Turner included declassification as part of a plan to revise the system of handling Sensitive Compartmented Information – but that plan was not implemented before the Carter administration was replaced by the Reagan administration, nor thereafter.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB24/nsa25.pdf